Today i tagged along with the bio-hack academy to do some experiments with a color producing bacteria.
The Janthinobacterium lividum is a dark blue bacteria. The pigment produces by this bacteria can be used to color textile.
To try this i first needed some material to dye, so i went to the Zeeman and bought some socks, underpants, and a shirt.
To make sort of a pattern i looked up different Shogun techniques and used rubber bands to tye the textile.
Secondly i placed the textile in a plastic bag and poured some base over the textile to feed the bacteria. We closed the bag and sterilized it by using a pressure-cooker. We want to kill most of the bacteria so our Janthino can thrive.
Lastly we inoculated the sterilized bag with the bacteria, sealed the bag with a cotton (to allow some oxygen to flow) and placed the bag in an incubator.
And now we wait.
Results
We checked every couple of days to see if the textile was turning blue. After waiting 12 days we didn’t see any progress.
This was the underwear i dyed. The print is nice but not as bright as i hoped. Next time i’d add more base to feed the bacteria.